Fixer-upper house boat on the Gulf Intra-Coastal Waterway on our way to Carrabelle, Fl.
Oystering in Apalachicola Bay. There were so many oysters here that each time an oysterman pulled up his rakes he had to have between 20 and 30 oysters
Just after sunrise in the Gulf of Mexico. Not the smooth conditions we were expecting.The crew was not overjoyed.
We left Port St. Joe Marina for our 55 mile trip to the anchorage off Carrabelle Beach at 7 a.m. The winds were still coming out of the northeast, but for some reason when we anchored in this spot where we should have been somewhat protected, we were still bouncing around, so "Freedom" anchored separately away from us instead of rafting up as we had been doing since we started traveling together.
Conditions continued to calm as late afternoon approached, so we had a very simple early dinner, and actually showered and went to bed in our clothes to try to get some sleep before our departure which we had now bumped up to midnight.
We left our boat radios on, and George told Andrew that if they could not sleep, they could call us and we would leave even earlier. At 10:00 p.m. they did call us, and by 10:20 p.m. we lifted anchor.
It was surreal to be headed out the inlet in the dark! Luckily George has had a lot of experience doing this in many offshore sailing trips, because after the last buoy, all that was visible was a black void.
Passing through the inlet was pretty smooth, but as we headed farther out, the wind and seas started to pick up right on our port beam and this motion caused us to rock from side to side. This was not what we expected!
We decided to leave the fly-bridge where the motion was greater, and went below to operate the boat from our lower station in the main salon. With the aid of our radar, GPS, depth- finder, and auto-pilot we simply held on tight and took turns manning the instruments from our recliner and couch, since WE COULD NOT SEE ANYTHING!
Luckily everything was battened down inside and outside the boat including our outdoor furniture, but our couch kept sliding across the cabin all night, sometimes with one of us on it! We, however, fared better than "Freedom", because Sallyann and Tut, the cat, both got very seasick, and Andrew had to man the helm for 15 hours of our 16 hour passage by himself on the very little sleep he had since the day before.After 10 a.m. things began to calm down somewhat, and we finally completed our 175 mile trip at 2:20 p.m. when we entered Clearwater's harbor.
The harbor-master at the Clearwater Yacht Club was waiting for us as we arrived and was very helpful in tying us up in our slips and we were supplied with lots of information about Clearwater Beach. We were all exhausted and decided to take naps once we were settled and then planned to have dinner at the Yacht Club.
George and Pat were able to do so, but Andrew, Sallyann, and Tut slept the rest of the afternoon and into the next morning once they put their heads down on their pillows, and we decided not to disturb them, since there were no lights to be seen on their boat.
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